Best of Pax Westona: September 2018

• Hard lessons breathe new life into retail stores (NYT)
• Frozen dinners make a comeback (WSJ)
• Why U.S. grocery chains need more (and better) store brand products (HBR)
• Fast food's got a Netflix problem (Bloomberg)
• Everything you need to know about Daniel Zhang, Alibaba's new king (Wired)
• Bezos unbound: What the Amazon founder plans to conquer next (Forbes)
• Tesco's new discount chain Jack's takes on Aldi and Lidl (BBC)
• Will we ever stop eating animal meat (The Atlantic)
• Amazon Prime Day: What the real lessons are (McKinsey)
• Meet the woman running Walmart's biggest deal ever (Fortune)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Meet the woman running Walmart's biggest deal ever (Fortune)
• The existential void of the pop-up 'experience' (NYT)
• Farm Boy won't change after Sobeys deal, co-CEO promises (CBC)
• Amazon turns to toys, hard goods in latest bricks and mortar trial (Reuters)
• From the archives (2006): Wal-Mart finds that its formula doesn't fit every culture (NYT)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Amazon Prime Day: What the real lessons are (McKinsey)
• Can beauty department makeovers keep traditional retailers relevant (Retail Dive)
• Lululemon, the brand that invented athleisure, plans its second act (Fast Company)
• Shoppers love rewards credit cards. Retailers hate them (WSJ)
• Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings parent to buy Sonic for $2.3 billion (Bloomberg)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Steven Sinofsky: Amazon: Retailers gonna retail (Medium)
• Want to see what's up Amazon's sleeve? Take a tour of Seattle (NYT)
• French retailer Carrefour denies takeover talks with Casino (WSJ)
• From farm to blockchain: Walmart tracks its lettuce (NYT)
• Sears CEO pushes a rescue plan to avoid bankruptcy (WSJ)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Will we ever stop eating animal meat (The Atlantic)
• Uber looks to Deliveroo to expand food delivery in Europe (FT)
• Store of the week: Jacks (TCC Global)
• Grocery retailers try new bag of tricks to slow sales decline (CBC)
• Sobeys parent looks to beef up with $800 million acquisition of Farm Boy (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Monday picks

• The Prime effect: How Amazon's 2-day shipping is disrupting retail (WSJ)
• Ranch nation (NYT)
• Walmart got Flipkart but Amazon now has more (Quartz)
• Walmart will use VR headsets to train all its employees (MIT Technology Review)
• Shoppers Drug Mart clears first hurdle to selling medical cannabis (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Walmart is trying to take on Amazon in fashion (Quartz)
• Amazon will consider opening up to 3,000 cashierless stores by 2021 (Bloomberg)
• Nestle sharpens focus on food and beverages with review of skin-health unit (WSJ)
• How to engage and retain your B players (HBR)
• From the archives (2015): Pierre Lessard knows how to make an exit (Montreal Gazette)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Artificial intelligence in business gets real (MIT SMR)
• Bezos unbound: What the Amazon founder plans to conquer next (Forbes)
• Tiger Global leads $300 million investment in Postmates Delivery (Bloomberg)
• Tesco's new discount chain Jack's takes on Aldi and Lidl (BBC)
• Chobani CEO says he would consider going public - but won't sell to an industry giant (Recode)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Why are legacy consumer firms suddenly keen on Indian startups (Quartz)
• Shiseido CEO explains why the cosmetics giant buys start-ups (CNBC)
• IKEA is now interested in self-driving cars (Fast Company)
• Instacart expands Aldi partnership (Tech Crunch)
• The great, American supermarket is not finished with you, yet (Food & Wine)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Customer Experience Tools and Trends 2018 (Bain)
• Walmart finally makes it to the Big Apple (NYT)
• Coca-Cola is eyeing the cannabis market (Bloomberg)
• CEO of Tyson Foods to step down for personal reasons (WSJ)
• The environment's new clothes: Biodegradable textiles grown from live organisms (Scientific American)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Everything you need to know about Daniel Zhang, Alibaba's new king (Wired)
• Walmart eyes Mexico grocery delivery with $225 million purchase (Bloomberg)
• Can Tesco's secret plan defeat Aldi and Lidl (The Guardian)
• Walmart expands test of its giant grocery vending machine (Food Dive)
• Management consulting's AI-powered existential crisis (MIT SMR)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Fast food's got a Netflix problem (Bloomberg)
• Cannabis comes to your coffee and candy - but is it legal (WSJ)
• Paying is voluntary at this selfie-friendly store (NYT)
• Walmart teams up with Instacart for same-day delivery in Canada (Reuters)
• From the archives (2001): Montreal grocers cry foul at chain (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• TV ratings provider Nielsen expands review to include company sale (Reuters)
• Unilever Dutch row misses the danger of pricey M&A (Bloomberg)
• Amazon starts selling Christmas trees (AP)
• Tuft & Paw is basically the West Elm of cat furniture (Racked)
• Is office politics a white man's game (HBR)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• The crazy, contentious history of Taco Tuesday (Thrillist)
• Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads (Recode)
• Tokyo's long lines lead to magic (and life-changing ramen) (Afar)
• A brief, bitter history of wild watermelon (Gastro Obscura)
• Hudson's Bay Co., Austria-based Signa form joint venture in European retail (CBC)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• The #1 office perk? Natural light (HBR)
• Alibaba's chairman, Jack Ma, plans to step down (NYT)
• Italy defied Starbucks, until it didn't (The Atlantic)
• Tackling the 1.6 billion-ton food loss and waste crisis (BCG)
• From lab to leader: How consumer companies can drive growth at scale with disruptive innovation (McKinsey)

Stephan's Monday Picks

• Frozen dinners make a comeback (WSJ)
• Why U.S. grocery chains need more (and better) store brand products (HBR)
• Amazon's antitrust antagonist has a breakthrough idea (NYT)
• Walmart tries out home delivery service (WSJ)
• Kraft Heinz sees rising costs, weighing M&A deals: CEO (Reuters)

Stephan's Friday Picks

• Why data culture matters (McKinsey)
• After 28,000 stores in 78 countries, Starbucks turns to Italy (WSJ)
• H-E-B to hire hundreds of employees for new digital HQ (Houston Chronicle)
• Third Point aims to replace Campbell Soup's entire board (WSJ)
• From the archives (2012): Discount birthday: Walmart, Kmart, Target hit 50 (USA Today)

Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Move over quinoa, Nestle is looking for the next superfood (Bloomberg)
• Tim Hortons escalates fight with dissident franchisee group (The Globe and Mail)
• Russia's top web store? Founded by a mom on maternity leave (Bloomberg)
• What does monopsony mean? Chicken farms offer an answer (The Atlantic)
• Loblaw rallies after selling Choice Properties REIT assets to George Weston (Financial Post)

Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Hard lessons breathe new life into retail stores (NYT)
• Why Walmart shoppers are finding more items 'out of stock' (WSJ)
• The shady world of beauty influencers and the brands that pay them (Vox)
• Inside Alibaba's new kind of retail (CNBC)
• New CEO Calvin McDonald looks to invoke Sephora experience as Lululemon surges ahead (The Globe and Mail)

Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Beverage makes explore entries to Canadian cannabis sector (The Globe and Mail)
• Coca-Cola bets on coffee with $5.1 billion deal for Costa (NYT)
• Indian retail isn't a pot of gold (Bloomberg)
• Walmart adds toys and shelf space for holidays, expands online offering (Reuters)
• Google and Mastercard cut a secret ad deal to track retail sales (Bloomberg)